ABSTRACT
The first known appearance of the family name John Frederic Oberlin in any public record in Alsace is in the registry of the church in Sundhofen, a town near Colmar, which belonged at that time to the Wurttembergian earldom of Hoburg. Oberlin's father was a man of imposing appearance, well educated, enlightened, vivacious, conscientious, and possessed of a strong and firm character. In the childhood home of Oberlin's mother, literature and the arts had been cultivated. The family traits that seem to have been dominant in determining John Frederic's peculiar talents and professional interests came mostly from his mother's side. The ancestry of Marie-Madeleine Oberlin, nee Feltz, has been traced beyond the beginning of the fourteenth century. Concerning Oberlin's childhood there is little documentary evidence except that he was born on August 31 at Strasbourg, was baptized at St. Thomas Church on September 1, and was given the name Johann Friedrich.
